Sound processing chipsets produced by Analog Devices, Inc., (ADI), are used in motherboards and sound cards by multiple OEM manufacturers. Founded in 1965 in Cambridge, MA, USA, by Ray Stata and Matthew Lorber, and currently headquartered in Norwood, MA, ADI manufactures analog, mixed-signal, and digital signal processing integrated circuits used to convert, condition and process sound into electrical signals, (as well as circuits that do this for light, temperature, motion, and pressure). SoundMAX driver software sold by ADI includes the SoundMAX Control Panel. This module is a system core utility supporting advanced jack-sensing and enumeration which brings up that Control Panel when it detects that a new audio device has been plugged into the system, automatically presenting the opportunity to configure it. If custom settings are being used for the system's sound such as effects or environments, smax4pnp.exe must be present. If other sound software is being used in place of the SoundMax integrated software it may be possible to disable this module with no ill effects.There are frequent reports of this module delaying or freezing Windows system logoff or shutdown. (Placing the system in standby or hibernate mode may also cause this.) It should only be present once at a time on a system and only if SoundMax is installed; otherwise the presence of disguised malware is indicated. Complete removal of Soundmax followed by re-installation usually fixes the problem.
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Users Opinions

Average user rating of smax4pnp.exe:
based on 74 votes. Read also the 74 reviews.

5113 users ask for this file.
41 users rated it as not dangerous.
8 users rated it as not so dangerous.
16 users rated it as neutral.
4 users rated it as little bit dangerous.
5 users rated it as dangerous.
14 users didn't rate it ("don't know").

All comments about smax4pnp.exe:

I know that it is the driver that runs Sound Max on my Intel 865GBF. I don't need it as I use Creative Lab Sound Blaster Live instead. It can be disabled in system settings. Sable

I know that if you want to delete it, it isn't as difficult as everyone says. I'm not a computer guy, sop I don't know about removing registry items and such. So, in Spybot, after you have fixed the problem, go to recovery. You will see that spybot has backed up SMax4PNP. Just chose to "purge" this item. I haven't had it sence. Joe Grant

SoundMax Drivers, in my case for ASUS P4P800-E

SoundMax Drivers not dangerous ghostface

Keeps freezing my computer on log-off/shut down, but appears to be harmless otherwise

It appears to be unneeded as sound still works. I think it senses changes to what is plugged in to sound ports. Startcop will find and disable or remove. It hangs up my PC on shutdown also. DonFouse

SoundMax Drivers

I downloaded it from a website that was supposed to make it so I could download movies onto my computer. I am not able to do that and ever since I installed it, my computer frequently freezes up and that is said to be running. I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Scans that I have done says I have no malicious spy ware on my computer yet another program I have keeps telling me that I do. SHansen

smax4pnp is an sound card for computer Josephtan Chenghock

SoundMax Drivers have redundent problems when you try to shut it of sandguy

Interferes with MS Money 2006 Deluxe Waldo

I was trying to open "My Documents" like I do everyday, but it gave me a blank white box with none of my files, and my cursor told me my computer was working hard, poor thing. CTRL+ALT+DELETE told me that 'My Documents' was Not Responding. Since this stuff usually happens when something wicked snuck onto my computer, I looked at my processes on task manager, and the first thing that stood out was smax4pnp, since I've never seen it before in my life. Decided that, because of this site, I should get rid of it, I did so. Tried to open My Documents again and voila! It works.

Keeps freezing my computer on log-off/shut down, not sure if it is harmless or not. Deb

Soundmax driver, for those of you who said it hangs up thier logoff, had the same issue, completly remove the soundmax installation, than reinstall, haven't had the logoff issue since. Shawn

Every time I ever had a problem with my computer and shut it down, microsoft memo says this progam is running. Lola

SoundMax Drivers for a couple of ASUS Boards Ace

Freezes occasionally when I have put the computer into standby or hibernate. I don't use its environmental effects so I just disabled it. Ash

SoundMax Driver, not dangerous. Itīs a common problem that this driver freezes the computer sometimes if shutting down. But if the file is located in WINDOWS\System32, it can be a cloaked virus, so be careful. Blizzard

high and constant page faults! even though it only takes about 8M of memory, it constantly generates page faults, which makes no sense... i removed it and all seems well. if you don't want it to load at boot, try renaming it to DONOTLOAD_SMax4PMP.exe and see what happens... you can always rename it back. T'Surakmaat

Comes with audio driver for SoundMax audio chip (usually with VIA chip). Causes problems when shutting off Windows XP system (fails to close). Solution is to disable the start-up of this program using MSCONFIG. Bounce

Definatly related to the Soundmax card on your machine. Knew nothing about it until I looked on this site, Thanks Google and ZoneAlarms for picking it up. I followed the advice from this site to uninstall it with Device Manager, It did solve my hang up issues when closing down the pc, and as ever XP just installs it when you re-boot.. WARNING, for those of you out there that like to do a complete cleanup before re-booting(Recommended for EVERY RE-BOOT of XP sorry Gates! Operating System you cannot do! Bing back DOS! Dil

SMax4PNP was keeping my computer from shutting down. I went to start/run/type in msconfig/OK/ then go to the startup tab and uncheck it. Laura

SoundMax also feature on the dell 8400 standard Mobo. I have a SB Audigy2 card as well so don't use it. Only time it has caused problems is in setting up a microphone. Sponge

Reinstalling latest version of driver for Intel board didn't fix problem with hanging. Reinstalling earlier version I had archive seems to have worked Max W

SoundMax Drivers, Harmless.

It keeps giving me an error message when I start up my computer Shortodd

Drivers of SoundMax sound cards. Some versions are known to be buggy and hang systems. Kyle

smax4pnp.exe obviously is an additional sound driver that came with the software cd included with my samsung notebook. the driver causes problems everytime i shut down the computer. de- and re-installing didn't solve the problem. I installed another sound driver included with windows xp2, which works fine, but the smax-driver offers more options / features, so i'm not quite sure if it's needed for advanced settings of this special notebook and its audio devices etc.!?! but i'm sure it's not dangerous in MY case as i installed it from original cd .. See also: Linkkomani

Soundmax driver, after reinstalling driver from manufacture, the lockup problems went away.

its new for my PC task manager list of processes. I removed it and cant find Soundmax in myPCs Add - Remove programs list hydra

Sound Max, alright, as clean exe file. However, trojans come dressed as this sound file. Have your SoundMax Driver files available. Boot to safemode. Go to C:\program files\analog devices\soundmax. Locate Smax4pnp.exe and rename to Smax4pnp.exe.old. Go to the SoundMax driver files you have available and run setup.exe. When finished. Restart and load windows normally. It worked for me and reinstalled the true version of Smax4pnp.exe. Check by locating c:\program files

It always gives me an error message Fnp

SoundMAX system core utility for "advanced jack-sensing and enumeration feature" support. If you do not mangle with various sound input/output devices (speakers, ear-phones, microphones etc.) all time, You can safely remove it from registry startup. If ever needed, it can be switched on in SMax control panel. See also: Linkkaaposc

ocasional pain on shutdown, requiring user to click "end now" in order to proceed with shutdown.I'm frustrated and still investigating....considering deletion Ken Webster

The smax4pnp.exe process puts an icon in the system tray. This icon gives you quick access to some of the features of the SoundMax software that was installed with your soundcard drivers. If you do not use the system tray icon it is safe to stop this process. See also: LinkIBM User

Sound Max Driver (version 4) plug-n-play ( for when you plug in your speakers / mic, makes you get that dialog box asking what you plugged in....) Ned

smax4pnp.exe is part of the SoundMAX software/driver package for onboard sound on many motherboards. It is not necessary for sound to work after the drivers are installed. However, it does seem to be necessary if you wish to use the SoundMAX Control Panel software. Both of these will run on startup after the software installation, and can be safely disabled without hurting basic sound functionality. smax4pnp.exe is only necessary if you wish to use the additional "features" of the SoundMAX Control Panel software, which will not run properly without it. Also, like others, I have experienced occ See also: LinkDeadFire

comes with soundmax drivers from Analog Devices See also: Linkjohanhelmons

Driver for built-in sound card on Asus mobo Alfa52

presentation director

it keeps freezing my comp during shut down... ruddin

Seems to cause Hellgate: London to fail to update multiplayer patches Bill

Definitely not dangerous at all.

driver that comes with SoundMax, causes problems in games BetYouNoOneReadsThis

It's a soundmax driver, although seems to cause many problems for many people, including myself. Get a different soundcard and get rid of this, it's a windows explorer nightmare Echizen

Doesn't appear to be malicious. IE froze while I was looking at a Java page (is that considered malicious yet?) and Task Manager said smax4pnp.exe was the culprit. I killed it, killed the Java page, and everything returned to normal. I blame Microsoft. Daniel

The 4.0 version has a memory leak that freeses the Windows task bar first and than the whole operating system. Otherwise harmless. Ocino

it recently poped up in my task manager process list, it was never there, I check regularly. joe

My soundmax came with my asus crosshair board, which came with it's own "sound card." I had a BSOD one day from a bad ram chip, and it started giving an error message "Your hardware configuration has changed. You must re-install SoundMax." I have, and have uninstalled the old one, yet i STILL get this error message EVERY STARTUP. Doesn't seem to be harmful, but the useless error message is extremely annoying. My sound still works (both speakers and mic). yeahlikeimgonnaleavemyname

SMAX4PNP only lets me close down if I hit the END NOW button Sally

Fixed shutdown problem in ThinkPad A31p by removing SoundMax driver using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel then getting new audio driver from Lenovo. Tony

Keeps me from shutting down my computer. Just delete the file and then restart ur computer. The file will reload from the net and all should be fine. Worked for me. No more problems. I think it gets corrupted over time. Buster

As I know, it-s SoundMax driver on my Windows XP Vladimir

smax4pnp.exe is a process installed for Analog Devices audio products. You can disable this unless you are using the advanced features of the sound system (e.g., surround sound). If you need to change any settings, you can use control panel / Sound (or SoundMAX). See also: LinkAdriano Z.

Harmless file related to SoundMax soundcard drivers. Can be safely removed if advanced effects and other features are not required. See also: LinkBetterPCPerformance.com

Beware of RegCure. It is a Bait & Switch operation that preys on people with computer problems such as smax4pnp.exe. Bob

It has been a pain on PC for a while - stopping me from shutdown and forcing me to end process. I have had loads of other problems which I cannot find the cause of so am hoping that deleting this (rename) will sort the problem. Does anyone know why it also creates a pf file (compressed information file) - that seemed quite dodgy to me ...

This error seems to have appeared after a Windows Vista update (maybe SP2?). To fix it, click the start orb, run msconfig, go the Startup tab and uncheck it. Done. Frank E.

I had encountered this issue in 2009 and I, after researchnig it didn't find sound blaster driver. So using Comodo Internet Security I blocked it, it poped back up but only cause I switched version of the wall. I'll just block it again and my music has always played great. No issues playing out of the sound card et cetera, microphone works fine, never one single problem with the sound card within the system environment. If it bothers me again I'll introduce it back to block and things will be fine. :) Paul

Downloaded from Asus as Mobo Driver package Odin

I would'nt reccomend uninstalling your SoundMax drivers, you could lose your sound and finding the software on the net can be extremely difficult. Montekristo

my sound card is not working when the smax4pnp.exe is pop up

inkluded when i downloaded the sounddriver for samsung x12. Harmles but the software does not work and the soundware software seems to give me blue screen and talk about memory problem when i have you-tube on for to long. Fix it now anyway. Go to battery and turn of all forms of hybernation (put computer to sleep = never) that seems to fix the problem. the computer have not crashed so fare =) Johnswed

Soundmax driver for ASUS mobos, not needed if you don't use it Ace

I believe it was installed with a monitor I got JP

Good for rep. music listen and recording ragusa.giorgio

I need it for my old computer dimension 4600 yo! its the sound driver for sound max

audio device for my dell og8310 motherboard, Advanced System Care tells me on system startup it chews 15.15% cpu usage and recommendation is to 'delay' it. Better still i can disable it as my nvidia graphics card has built in audio mark alexander ufo

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